Replacing The Cactus of Suffering With His Joy | Part 2

From Suffering to Joy: Embracing God's Promise of Healing and Restoration

By Warren David Horak

Life inevitably brings pain and hardship. Countless believers have endured unimaginable agony, torment beyond what most could fathom.

The trials they've faced  have been sent to shipwreck their faith and destinies.

The enemy deploys zealous efforts to postpone, even permanently obstruct, the glorious destiny Christ has prepared for you.

The Lord is saying to you today;

"You do not have to live any longer in that place of suffering!"

"I will replace the cactus of pain in your life with My Joy."

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Introduction

The enemy zealously strives to obstruct the glorious destiny Christ has prepared for us. However, the Lord offers us a way out of suffering, a path that leads from the cactus of pain to the oasis of His joy.

"To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified" (Isaiah 61:3). 

"You do not have to live any longer in that place of suffering!" He declares, "I will replace the cactus of pain in your life with My Joy."

The Promise of Healing and Restoration

The Scriptures abound with promises of God's desire to heal the brokenhearted, comfort those who mourn, and replace our ashes with beauty.

Isaiah 61:1-3 declares, "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor;

He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning,

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

Jesus Himself bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, wounded for our transgressions so that by His stripes we might be healed,

as Isaiah 53:3-5 declares,

"He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;

The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed."

In our suffering, God assures us that He is the "Father of mercies and God of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3-5),

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ."

Letting Go of the Past

To experience the fullness of God's healing and restoration, we must let go of the past.

The Lord exhorts us,

"Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:18-19).

Like the Apostle Paul, we must forget what lies behind and press forward toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-16),

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind."

Surrendering to God's Healing

Letting go of the past is a process of surrender, a step-by-step journey through the gates of forgiveness and into the healing power of Christ's blood.

Just as the prophet Jeremiah envisioned a future where mourning would be turned to joy (Jeremiah 31:11-17),

"For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he. 

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming to the goodness of the LORD For wheat and new wine and oil, For the young of the flock and the herd;

Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all.

"Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, And the young men and the old, together; For I will turn their mourning to joy, Will comfort them, And make them rejoice rather than sorrow. I will satiate the soul of the priests with abundance,

And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD." Thus says the LORD: "A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more."

Thus says the LORD: "Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

There is hope in your future, says the LORD, That your children shall come back to their own border," 

we too can experience this transformation as we surrender our pain and trauma to the Lord.

Renewing Your Mind

Crucial to this journey from suffering to joy is the renewal of our minds. Where our minds go, our emotions and ultimately our will follow.

We must make a quality decision not to dwell on the memories that bring us pain, for there is nothing we can do about the past.

The Apostle Paul exhorts us in Philippians 3:7-16,

"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, 

but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.

Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind." 

Instead, we must fix our thoughts on the hope and promise of our future in Christ (Jeremiah 31:17), "There is hope in your future, says the LORD, That your children shall come back to their own border."

The Path to Joy

As we surrender our pain to the Lord, let go of the past, and renew our minds, we position ourselves to experience the joy that God has promised.

The cactus of suffering will be replaced by the fragrant blossoms of His joy, and we will be called "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified" (Isaiah 61:3).

Conclusion:

The journey from suffering to joy is a process, but it is one that God has promised to guide us through.

As we embrace His healing and restoration, let go of the past, and renew our minds, we will experience the fullness of His joy, a joy that transcends our circumstances and glorifies His name.

Let us press on toward this upward call, knowing that the God of all comfort is with us every step of the way.

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